May 11, 2021  UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute

The UCSC Genome Browser team announced the release today of the Vaccines track for the UCSC SARS-CoV-2 Genome Browser. This track shows the alignment of three different mRNA vaccine sequences to the SARS-CoV-2 genome:

  1. The BioNTech/Pfizer BNT-162b2 sequence as published by the World Health Organization (WHO)
  2. The reconstructed BioNTech/Pfizer BNT-162b2 RNA as sequenced by the Andrew Fire lab, Stanford University School of Medicine
  3. The Moderna mRNA-1273 sequence as sequenced by the Andrew Fire lab, Stanford University School of Medicine

The protein encoded by the three sequences has two AA substitutions compared to the SARS-CoV-2 S glycoprotein. Variations: S:K986P and S:V987P in the vaccine sequence. See also: The tiny tweak behind COVID-19 vaccines.

More information about this track can be found on the track description page, https://genome.ucsc.edu/cgi-bin/hgTrackUi?db=wuhCor1&c=NC_045512v2&g=vaccines.

More information on genomic tools for COVID-19 research like UShER — designed to enable real-time genomic contact tracing and rapid analysis of coronavirus variants sequences for exploration of transmission and SARS-CoV-2 vaccine targets — can be found here: https://genome.ucsc.edu/covid19.html

The UCSC Genome Browser team thanks the Andrew Fire lab, Stanford University School of Medicine for providing the sequencing data of these vaccines, and recognizes the Browser’s Hiram Clawson and Jairo Navarro for the creation and release of this track.